Orpington woman sent spinning after being hit by van says she's lucky to be alive

A WOMAN who lay in the middle of the road for nearly half an hour after being struck by a van near Chelsfield Station says she’s "lucky to be alive".

Penny Bridges, 61, who works for University College London, said she was on her way home on Tuesday January 28 at about 6.40pm when the vehicle knocked her to the floor.

Mrs Bridges, of Worlds End Lane in Orpington, described how she was lying in the road with cuts and bruises on a "cold, dark and wet" evening for 25 minutes waiting for an ambulance.

She said people "take their lives in their own hands" when crossing the T-junction where Windsor Drive meets Warren Road and said she’s called for the council to improve the area’s safety, adding there are no pedestrian crossings nearby.

She said: "Someone will be killed there one day. The council should put in a crossing – this is an area used by thousands of commuters.

"I am bruised where I was hit, have cuts and scrapes and a bad back – I’m very lucky to be alive and not to have anything broken."

Mrs Bridges explained how she was half-way across when the vehicle clipped her shoulder, sending her "spinning".

She said she was fortunate an off-duty police officer was at the scene and thanked a kind lady who sheltered her from the rain with an umbrella.

The commuter said she contacted Bromley Council after the incident and feels the authorities should do more.

She added: "I just hope they’re not waiting for a fatality".

Councillor Julian Grainger responded to her warnings and said he was "very sorry" to hear she was hurt, though noted resources are limited.

In an email to Mrs Bridges, he said: "The council prioritises road safety spending on locations with records of injury accidents – and unless I’m mistaken, this is the first injury accident near this spot in many years.

Although no other pedestrian incidents have taken place, Mrs Bridges said road collisions have occurred at the spot and added a website called crashmap.co.uk indicates a number of accidents have been recorded in the area.

Bromley Council, in a statement, said: “This is a relatively unusual junction, with no pedestrian accidents recorded at all over the past three years. As such this particular junction already has a much better safety record than most.

"However, in light of this incident and once the full facts underlying it have been established, the Department will of course review whether any road safety remedial measures might prove appropriate.”